


How The Dark Knight Rises is Not Going to End

by tarradiddle



Category: DCU - Comicverse, Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Comics/Movie Crossover, Gen, Implied Relationships, Surprise Guest Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-22
Updated: 2012-10-22
Packaged: 2017-11-16 20:31:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/543541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tarradiddle/pseuds/tarradiddle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Written before the movie came out, based on nothing but the trailer and my own wishes.)</p>
<p>When Bane's assault on Gotham City grows out of control, Ra's makes a desperate gamble, and then things go rather sideways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How The Dark Knight Rises is Not Going to End

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously I was right, and the movie was nothing like this.

“Watch for now. Then we'll discuss the next move.”

  
* * *

 

John Blake and Selina Kyle crouch in the basement of a fallen building, shaken and bleeding. They don't speak, even trying to stifle their ragged breathing, because they can still hear Bane's army of thugs and criminals looting outside.  
  
When the voices and gunfire fade a little, Selina hisses, “Can you walk? We have to get out of here!”  
  
The young officer tries to stand, but falls back against the wall with a muffled cry when he tries to put weight on his mangled right leg. “I can hop?” he essays weakly.  
  
Selina snorts helplessly, then holds her breath and squeezes her eyes shut. “I can't make it back to him in time anyway, can I?”  
  
Blake hesitates. “I don't think so. If you want to try, go. Please just go.”  
  
She tilts her head back with her eyes closed. “Do you ever think, life should be better than this? That we should be better than this?”  
  
“I used to. Today, I'm not so sure.”  
  
The rubble above them creaks, and they both recoil back against the wall.  
  
“We need to _go_ ,” Selina says again. Blake is pale, probably in shock. She feels like she should help him, she knows that she's grasping at straws a bit, but she wants to save _someone_. She's a little worried that he's going to pass out, though.  
  
“Half the force is down already, Gordon's dead, I don't know that anyplace in the city is safe.” He pauses. “Or outside the city, for that matter. But yeah, we can't stay here. I know a place we might be able to hide out for a while... if it's not destroyed yet.”  
  
“Okay, let's try it.” She puts her arm around the young man and begins to make her way cautiously out of the basement. 

  
* * *

  
“I would have thought you wouldn't object to the possible removal of the Cat-woman, and the chaos in the city is not in opposition to our plans....Yes, I will look. Help me.”

  
* * *

  
Batman is also hiding in the rubble of Gotham City, using his right hand to try to staunch the bleeding from his left shoulder. He's still in his armor, mostly, but someone got off a lucky shot anyway. He blames the injuries and malnutrition he suffered as Bane's prisoner, but knows that even before that he wasn't in top form. He hopes Catwoman got out of the city after rescuing him. She claimed that she was leaving town, but he doesn't know whether she made it.  
  
The rescue seems like a bit of a waste now, though.  
  
Bane's rumbling voice suddenly echoes down the street. “I can practically smell you, little Bat. Why don't you come out and play?”  
  
Bruce fumbles at his belt, but there's not much left. Throwing stars: Gone defending civilians from the mob. Small explosives: Used getting kids out of a burning building when all the exits were blocked. Acid capsules: Flung at Bane the last time they'd crossed paths on this hellish day, for all the good it did. Grapple Line: Lost after pulling Joker off that cop, Blake. He'd almost panicked then, and it made him uneasy. Joker was probably still unconscious unless one of Bane's people had finished him, and Blake had given Bruce a limited sit-rep then moved on to try to meet up with what remained of the GCPD. Blake was a nice kid, good heart, and Joker always made Bruce angry, but he still worried that he'd overreacted in the moment, that he'd come close to losing control and making a fatal mistake.  
  
The throbbing in his shoulder reminds him that he'd made a few mistakes since then.  
  
Smoke pellets. He still has a couple of those. Not much help against a brutal man invigorated by some sort of strength-enhancing toxin, but better than nothing. He shifts minutely into position.  
  
Bane laughs when Batman emerges from hiding, and only laughs harder when he flings down the gas pellets and smoke fills the street. Bruce lashes out with precise nerve strikes, tries to attack only from the most unexpected angles, and Bane staggers, but then he just laughs again. Bruce knows he's out of tricks, the city is destroyed, and it's very possible that everyone he cares about is already dead. He grabs a shard of glass from the sidewalk and lunges straight for Bane's throat.  
  
And is stopped.  
  
Bane holds Batman's hand easily in his, and casually crushes it, then slams Batman to the ground. Bruce is too dazed to respond before his wounded shoulder is grabbed and crumples in the other man's grip.  
  
Before he blacks out, Bruce hears Bane's laugh, and feels the ground fall away...

  
* * *

  
The vision wavers and breaks up.  
  
“That's enough, Father.” Talia has stepped away from the seeing stone, and without her focus, it darkens. “What is your plan now?” she asks sarcastically. “Bane is out of control, and the darkness he brings will spread unchecked beyond the city.”  
  
Ra's stands in the eerie light of the cavern, still looking at the darkened stone. “It's true, I had still hoped to use Wayne, he had a lot of potential. And while he is not dead yet,” he continues, answering her unasked question, “he soon will be, given the current lack of adequate, or in fact any, medical services in the wreck of once-proud Gotham City.”  
  
He turns away from the stone on its pedestal and seems to contemplate the assorted magical and scientific paraphernalia stacked along the rough walls. “I have several possible moves from here, although none of them are as elegant as I would have liked. I could kill everyone remaining in Gotham,” he gestured slightly to a row of containers marked BIO-HAZARD, “and see what happens next. I could let Bane and his army get as far as they can and then sabotage his Venom supply, leaving his organization with a power vacuum. I could even possibly help contain them in Gotham itself and take credit for that act of altruism.”  
  
He steps toward the shelves and lays his hand lightly on an ancient-looking text. “I might even be able to rescue that idealistic fool.” He looks up. “That is what you want, isn't it?”  
  
Talia's eyes narrow and her lips thin. “What I want is not important. None of your so-called _moves_ actually mitigate the fact that you have squandered time and resources with this petty feud, lost control of much of the League of Shadows, and we are not any closer to our larger goals!”  
  
Ra's just laughs, “Oh my dear, you were sweet on the poor boy, weren't you?” He turns suddenly and begins flipping through the tome from the shelves. “Although you might have a point. Enough incremental adjustments. Let's take a page from Gotham's book and risk it all on one big play.”  
  
“What? Father, I'm not sure...”  
  
He laughs again, while he continues to page through the book. “Neither am I, my dear. I spotted this months ago, and it sounded ludicrous. It might not do anything. However, the devastation going on because of that little skirmish consuming the city might just be the thing...” He skims over a passage, then presses the book into her hands, moving to collect candles and bring them to the level area they had used previously to attempt other mystical rites, including the creation of the seeing stone.  
  
Talia reads the passage carefully. “This sounds... dangerous, but promising.”  
  
“Dealing with demons always is.” He smirks at her slightly, a shared joke.  
  
Soon they are ready. Talia starts up a rhythmic chant, and when the moment feels right, Ra's calls on spirits summoned by the slaughter in Gotham; powers bound to the untimely dead. The advice in the ancient grimorie warned not to call upon vengeful spirits for any murder caused by the summoner, but also said that if the spirit didn't kill the practitioner, they could be tricked, manipulated or coerced into acts of incredible power. That could be just the thing they need to turn the destruction to their own ends.  
  
There is a sound, not in the cavern, but inside their heads, like a rush of flame and wind, and then there is a shadowy figure within the carved circle.  
  
“Greetings,” says Ra's politely.  
  
“You risk much to come willingly into my presence, Demon's Head,” comes a voice like a gong at the bottom of a well.  
  
“We mean no imposition, spirit,” puts in Talia, “We call on behalf of the people of Gotham, struck down too soon.”  
  
“The world is full of people struck down before their time, or who never live at all. What would you ask of Vengeance, O Daughter of the Demon, rather than I strike down the both of you where you stand.”  
  
Talia doesn't respond. Ra's proclaims, “I would bring balance to the world. I would bring an end to corruption!”  
  
The figure laughs, and both humans flinch slightly. “You hide here, and set your little plans in motion. You watch, and plot, and scheme.” It laughs again. “And yet you are so much less than you could be.” It falls silent for a moment, then speaks once more. “Even I am not quite arrogant enough to think that I could prevent corruption and murder by such simple means as you would seek.”  
  
“What do you mean,” Talia suddenly asks, “that we are less than we could be?”  
  
“I see many possibilities, not all of which lead to this day. You could have made different choices, in a different world, and different crimes would now be laid at your feet. But not the decimation of Gotham City.”  
  
Before Ra's can return to speaking of his vision for the future, Talia exclaims, “Can you change the past, O Spirit? Can you change this fate?”  
  
It seemed amused, now. “You do not know what you ask for.”  
  
Ra's thought feverishly that this was coming to a head too quickly; he'd expected to have more time to gauge the intentions and powers of the spirit. However, maybe if he'd been able to keep Wayne in the first place, together they could have found a more peaceful way to purge corruption from society. Maybe if he had refused to deal with Bane, the more recent past wouldn't have claimed so many of his operatives. Finally he barks a short laugh. “Well, I can't say I think much of the world as it is! If you have this power, I challenge you to use it!”  
  
“HA, HA, HA. VERY WELL.” The shadows resolve into a pale human figure seven feet tall, wrapped in a cloak. “Behold the SPECTRE, Spirit of Vengeance! In recompense for your arrogance and cruelty, in payment for the dead of Gotham city and throughout the world I will shift your very reality. Prepare yourselves!”  
  
The Spectre begins to glow, and both Ra's and Talia lose themselves in the light...

  
* * *

  
Blake frantically tries to give Selina CPR. They'd been jumped coming around the corner. The last bullet in his service revolver had winged one of the attackers and a further bluff had sent them running, but Selina took a bad hit.  
  
“Come on, wake up, get up,” he says over and over, but she isn't moving, she isn't breathing. He knows more thugs are on the way, he can't stay with her, but he can barely stand without help. Cursing angrily, he starts to try to drag her into hiding when he sees the sky...

* * *

  
Bruce sees the sky, gray and cloudy. The edges of buildings, moving past at a steady rate. He is being dragged. How? About the time he realizes that his mask is off, that he can feel his hair catching on gravel, he realizes that he is being dragged by his legs, but can't feel them. For that matter, he can't feel much of anything.  
  
He laughs, one helpless puff of breath, and the sense of movement stops. Bane's face swims into his vision. “Good!” he says, “You still live. I want you to see...What? Did you speak?”  
  
Bruce tries again. “I'm dying,” he says, with a fey little smile. “Must be, because the sky's gone all funny.”  
  
Bane's face leaves Bruce's field of vision and doesn't return. He wonders idly if that was the light one was supposed to move towards, because the sky is going all white. Everything is going... all...white...

  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  
Bruce woke with a start and sat up. He was on the couch, in his study. He seemed to have control over both his arms and legs. It was a clear afternoon outside, sun lanced in through the large windows.  
  
A dark-haired young man poked his head into the room. _Blake?_ thought Bruce vaguely. _No, not Blake at all..._  
  
“Oh, you're up. I was headed downstairs, wondered if you'd like to spar. You still never did teach me that throw that...” the casual smile faded from his face. “Bruce? Are you alright?” He looked anxious.  
  
Bruce blinked twice, and the world seemed to swing back underneath his feet. “No, Dick, I'm fine. Had the strangest dream, though.”  
  
“Ah.” Dick leaned against the door frame. “Anything interesting?”  
  
“Just a lot of scrambled memories, I think. Bits of Bane, bits of the earthquake, bits of that case with the Holiday Killer.”  
  
“Doesn't sound too pleasant.”  
  
“No, not particularly.” He wasn't about to say so, but he suddenly felt a bit like Scrooge on Christmas morning. _I'm home, Gotham is safe today, my boys are here. Not bad at all._  
  
Dick grinned at him. “Well, don't tell J'onn. He's been after Kory recently to let him 'interpret her dreams'. She thinks it's meant kindly, but he's very persistent.”  
  
Bruce smirked. “Duly noted.” He got up, stretching. “I think a work-out would be just this thing to wake me up. I should finish the analysis on that mystery plasma from Metropolis before Clark gets more impatient, and I told Tim I'd check some cryptanalysis he's doing.” _So much to do, League meeting on Friday, Selina will be back in town this weekend..._  
  
Dick chuckled, and led the way toward the stairway to the Cave. “No rest for the weary, right?”  
  
Bruce smiled then, eager to get to work. “Never.”

  
* * *

  
Ra's al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins, awoke from deep meditation with only the edges of a strange dream fading in his mind. Soon he would call Ubu and begin the day's work, but for a moment he tried to recall the visions. He finally snorted at his own foolishness and gave up.  
  
“I don't know why,” he murmured into the empty room, “but I think that you might owe me something, Detective.”


End file.
